Eco-Disposal of Cat Litter

[PicklingGherkins]

Hi all, my two share a big litter tray filled with some wood pellet litter from Tesco (they also use our garden if the weather is good). To avoid ammonia smells I'm finding I need to clear the tray out every 1-2 days. It all gets tipped into a bin bag and put in the black bin. Does anyone have any more eco-friendly suggestions (I am trying to reduce plastic/landfill waste where I can).

I'd love to know too. I have three resident cats and sometimes foster other cats for a rescue - during kitten season I get through about 20-30 litres of litter per week, it's awful to fill the bin with so much used litter.

There are some flushable litters but I'm not comfortable doing that either for so many cats, it would be a lot of litter to flush.

I use a clumping flushable one and flush the poos and clumps of wee then empty in to a bin bag every week or so I can wash the tray. I wouldn't want to flush too much. You can't really compost it can you it would absolutely stink. I'm not sure of a better way!

We’ve switched to a clay based clumping litter and use biodegradable doggy bags for the clumps and poo and it goes straight in the bin.

Wow that's a lot of plastic. I would suggest shifting to a better grade litter to cut down smells. Cats best is expensive, but you just chuck lumps and replace base layer every 6 weeks (I wash trays weekly and just add litter back in plus some fresh).

I would really like not to use plastic poo bags (even if biodegradable). But our sewage cannot come with the bacteria in cat poo and it gets into the oceans where it harms marine life - esp sea otters. So I see no way round that yet, unless anyone else does?

Linky -
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4729810.stm

Flushing cat poo is really not better for the environment!

I wouldn’t even risk putting flushable litter down our toilet, never mind the damage to the environment from the cat poo! I wish there was a better way but I don’t know what.

Wood pellets can be composted (with solid pool removed) & mixed with compostable waste if your council takes that.

My council doesn't take compostible waste, we can only put garden waste in the brown bins, and I'm not having a compost bin in the garden so it looks as though I'll have to stick with biodegradable bags.

My council takes compostable waste but deffo no cat litter - even wood pellets, which seems mad to me

You'd have thought sawdust soaked in ammonia would be fantastic compost.

We have a litter tray as M is shut inside from early evening until the following morning. She does her poos in the flowerbeds and then buries them. She does some wees outside and some in the litter tray.

We use a compostable litter, so the used litter goes in the compost bin at the end of the garden. We use the finished compost on the garden. If we grew vegetables then I might think twice about this, but we don't.

Thank you everyone, can I ask what brands of litter are compostable and whether it's expensive. I have a nice flower border in the garden that could use some nice compost.

can I ask what brands of litter are compostable and whether it's expensive

Cat's Best is compostable. There's an original type (haven't used it but apparently it tracks a bit) and Nature Gold smart pellets (doesn't track).

Cat's Best is expensive by weight, but you don't use as much. So long as you remove the poos promptly and remove the wee clumps every day, the rest of the litter doesn't smell of anything and can stay in the tray (being topped up) for 4-6 weeks. DS2 and I both have a very sensitive sense of smell and this litter honestly doesn't smell of anything, even when it's been weed on.

A 10kg bag (£17 on Zooplus) lasted over two months (when our cat didn't yet go out).